Don't stall the war on AIDS

[Guest guest]

Don't stall the war on AIDS, July 2, 2008 SF Chronicle

Fund an unending war in Iraq? Dump more money into farm subsidies? A

small band of Senate Republicans have no problem with these costly

favorites. But when it comes to a global AIDS program, the brakes go on.

At issue is one of Washington's unrivalled foreign policy successes: a

bipartisan plan to expand global AIDS care and treatment. The

initiative, by far the biggest by any nation, is stalled in the Senate

though it easily won House approval earlier this year and has the

backing of President Bush.

This humanitarian program was launched by the White House in 2003 and

focused on 15 counties, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, with $15 billion

in aid. The program may well be one of the president's most impressive

- and least noted - accomplishments. Nearly two million receive

anti-retroviral drugs. Prevention efforts are credited with

forestalling infection of seven million more.

AIDS remains a worldwide horror with some 33 million infected with the

HIV virus that causes the disease. Since 1981, more than 20 million

have died from AIDS. But before the 15-nation program was launched,

fewer than 100,000 were receiving life-prolonging drugs while

prevention and education were haphazard.

The renewed initiative, if it survives, will build on the first five

years of work. It steers 55 percent of the money into direct and

measurable treatment but it allows a freer hand at the country-level

to craft new programs, a feature supported by a federal study by the

Government Accountability Office. What works in Vietnam may not serve

as well in South Africa, two of the recipient countries.

This far-flung operation has performed well and it's time to go

wide-screen. When the White House proposed a $30 billion budget for

the next five years, the House raised the number to $50 billion. The

president now supports the new number.

The budget boost riled GOP conservatives, who feel the price tag is

too high. No question, it's a large number. But it builds on

AIDS-fighting programs and includes two new targets, tuberculosis and

malaria. These diseases are endemic in the same countries afflicted

with the virus that causes AIDS. Going after one devastating infection

gives health experts a chance at tamping down two other killers.

The bill includes compromises that explain why it's collected

widespread support. Abstinence programs, dear to the heart of

religious right, will be maintained though to a lesser degree, as AIDS

workers prefer. Liberals accepted changes to minimize family planning

groups, disliked by anti-abortion groups.

There is also a proviso that would cancel a ban on admitting

immigrants infected with HIV into the United States, canceling a

barrier that few other major nations impose. Such a change would

return the decision on controlling disease at the border to health

experts, not politicians who imposed the ban in the early days of AIDS

threat. One local note: the late Cong. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, played

a key role in resolving disputes around the House version, making the

bill another memorial to his Capitol career.

The Senate should act without delay to complete its version and speed

along a broadly-supported package. Adding urgency is a G-8 summit of

the world's major countries later this month. President Bush needs

approval of this global AIDS program to press other national leaders

to follow the U.S. lead. An important battle against AIDS still needs

fighting, and this country should continue to lead the charge.

This article appeared on page B - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/01/ED6E11HKBO.DTL